Pasadena Man Linked to Detroit-Based Drug Trafficking Organization

A 45-year-old Pasadena man who was arrested Friday on the strength of a warrant issued in Wayne County, Michigan has been named in a federal criminal complaint that alleges he is one of the key operatives in a drug trafficking organization that shipped cocaine and heroin from Los Angeles to Detroit.

Kevin Blair, also known as “Wood,” was taken into federal custody Monday morning and was ordered held without bond at a court hearing in the afternoon.

Pasadena police officers arrested Blair Friday pursuant to an outstanding felony warrant for assault with intent to murder that was issued by the Michigan court. In the course of the arrest, authorities found evidence that they said linked him to the drug trafficking network.

The California Attorney General’s Office said federal authorities are seeking a second man, identified in the complaint filed Monday as Delano Leflore, also known as “Bop Bop,” 37, from Detroit.

The criminal complaint charges Blair and Leflore with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and to distribute heroin and cocaine, a charge which carries a potential penalty of life in federal prison.

The case against Blair and Leflore follows the seizure of about two kilograms of heroin and about a kilogram of cocaine at the Los Angeles International Airport on March 7. After the narcotics were discovered in checked luggage, federal prosecutors charged Kennsha Mason, a 28-year-old Detroit woman, with being a drug courier.

Last Friday, a federal grand jury indicted Mason on three counts: conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and to distribute heroin and cocaine, possession with intent to distribute heroin, and possession with intent to distribute cocaine. Mason, who remains in federal custody in Los Angeles, is scheduled to be arraigned on the indictment Tuesday.

While investigating Mason, Drug Enforcement Agency agents with the LAX Airport Narcotics Task Force developed evidence that Blair and Leflore coordinated the shipment of narcotics that Mason was allegedly ferrying to Detroit.

The criminal complaint said Leflore hired Mason to transport narcotics and made arrangements for her to travel from Detroit to Los Angeles. Once in Los Angeles in early March, Mason travelled to a townhouse on South Oakland Avenue in Pasadena, where Blair allegedly supplied the narcotics that were discovered by law enforcement in her suitcase.

When Blair was arrested Friday, authorities found on him a receipt for a UPS shipment sent from Los Angeles to Detroit, the complaint said. On Monday morning, authorities in Michigan intercepted the package Blair sent by UPS, and recovered a kilogram of suspected heroin and an ounce of suspected fentanyl.

At Monday’s court hearing, Blair was ordered to appear in United States District Court for a preliminary hearing on April 17 and an arraignment on April 21.

The Pasadena Police Department is assisting in the investigation being conducted by led by the DEA LAX Narcotics Task Force, which aside from DEA include representatives from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Los Angeles Airport Police, the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. The Task Force also works closely with the United States Customs and Border Protection and the Transportation Security Administration.

The case against Mason is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Reema M. El-Amamy of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force.